General Information

North Frisian is a minority language of Germany, spoken by about 10,000 people in North Frisia. There are two main dialectal divisions: those of the mainland and the insular dialects. There is no standard variety, although some have suggested the mainland Mooring dialect. The language is part of the larger group of the West Germanic Frisian languages.

North Frisian is an endangered language, as in most places children no longer learn it. Exceptions are a few villages on the islands of Föhr and Amrum and the Risum area. All speakers of North Frisian are at least bilingual (North Frisian and Standard German). The variety presented here is Öömrang Frisian spoken on the island of Amrum where the main language is German. The Frisian language in the Öömrang dialect is spoken by roughly a third of the population, i.e. by ca. 800 people. However, many Amrumers cannot read North Frisian (Öömrang) making Öömrang a spoken rather than a written North-Frisian dialect. Many Amrumers moreover speak Low German, since it had been the language of the coastal sailors. Only a few people speak the Danish language.

Typological Details

Family Membership

Indo-European

Germanic

West-Germanic

Parameters

Syntactic:

SOV, SVO, Prepositions, Adjective - Noun

Morphological:

Little Affixation, Weakly Suffixing

Phonological:

Rounded Front Vowels

Miscellaneous:

Decimal System

Status:

Endangered

Speaker

Name:

Jens Q.

Age:

55

Community:

Wittdün, Amrum

Occupation:

Publicist, Manager

National Ancestry:

Frisian

Year Interviewed:

2008

Play a welcome message spoken by Jens Q.:

Ik begrööte altuumal, wat det linguistik websidj natge.

Ik begrööt-e altuumal, wat det linguistik websidj natge.

ɪk bə'grø:tə altʊ'mɑl vat dɛt lɪŋgʊ'ɪstɪs 'vɛpsit 'ɲɑtgə.

I welcome-1.SG all.together, who the.N.SG linguistic website use.

Ik het Jens Quedens an snake Öömrang.

Ik het Jens Quedens an snak-e Öömrang.

ɪk hɛt 'jɛns 'kve:dəns ən 'snɑ:kə 'ø:mrɑŋ.

I be.called Jens Quedens and speak-1.SG Öömrang (Amrum.Frisian).

Morphology and Syntax

The examples below document the strong fusional character of North Frisian as well as the use of SVO in main and of SOV in subordinate clauses.

at buk

at 'bʊk

the.N.SG book.SG

a buk-en

a 'bʊkŋ

the book-PL

det grat buk

dɛt 'grat bʊk

the.N.SG big book.SG

det rocht grat buk

dɛt 'rɔxt grat bʊk

the.N.SG rightly big book.SG

ūūn det buk

'u:n dɛt bʊk

in the.N.SG book.SG

ūūn det buk

'u:n dɛt bʊk

on the.N.SG book.SG

De maan slääp-t.

dɪ 'mɑ:n slɛ:pt

the.M.SG man.SG sleep-3.SG.PRES

Jü wüf slep.

jy 'vʏf slɛ:p

the.F.SG woman.SG sleep.PST.3.SG

De maan sjoch-t det wüf.

dɪ 'mɑ:n ʃʲɔxt dɛt 'vʏf

the.M.SG man.SG see-PRES.3.SG the.N.SG woman.SG

... aner det wüf de maan sjoch-t.

... aʊə dɛt 'vʏf dɪ 'mɑ:n ʃʲɔxt

... when the.N.SG woman.SG the.M.SG man.SG see-PRES.3.SG

De maan dää det wüf det buk.

dɪ 'mɑ:n dɛ: dət 'vʏf dət 'bʊk

the.M.SG man.SG give.PRES.3.SG the.N.SG woman.SG the.N.SG.book

A Complex Passage

The speaker tells the story 'The Northwind and the Sun'.

The North Wind and the Sun were disputing which was the stronger,

Iar strääd ham nuurdwinj an san, hoker van biale-n wel stark-er wjar,

Once argued REFL North.wind and sun, which of both-DAT really strong-COMPR was,